[Throwing in some pictures because I can't stand not to... They're starting to look like peas in a pod!]
Our kit came with the workbook and audio CDs - but also a code to watch Dave's presentations online. I do much better with anything visual, so we opted to go through it that way instead of with the CDs. (Special thanks to my tech-savy husband who hooked the computer up to our TV so I could kick back with some popcorn and pretend it was a movie night!)
[She's tiny, but she can hold her own!]
We learned about the first "Baby Step" towards financial peace...
Set up an Emergency Fund QUICKLY - starting with $1000 now, and working towards 3-6 months of expenses... And do NOT touch it.
This required us to look at our monthly expenses, which we realized we have a lot of "extras" going out that we could cut back on, and save instead. So we made some goals for this week, which look like this...
- Set up that emergency fund account and get it rolling.
- Cancel my tanning. $40/month and I haven't used it in 6 months. You're welcome, Palm Beach.
- Cancel TruGreen. They've been showing up unannounced monthly and charging us $70 for lawn treatments.
- Cancel the HD chanels on our cable. Only $10 extra per month, but we don't watch that much [non-NickJr/Disney] TV and I can't even tell the difference.
- Increase the deductible on our health insurance plan, which will decrease our monthly premium by $200.
- Limit eating out to once a week. (We can sometimes get out of hand on this one...)
- Only 1 Starbucks a week for Mommy, and a $100/month craft limit ;) (Yes - I came up with these two myself...)
Also - we draft X amount of $$$ in to my "Mommy Budget" account weekly, but I know I probably only use half of it for groceries/neccessities. So this week my goal was to find out exactly how much goes towards food/neccessities and how low I could get that number so we could figure it in to our emergency fund.
[He announced yesterday that he was going Ni-night on the stairs and for me to take a picture... So I did.]
So when I went to get weekly groceries today I tried something new and completely out of my comfort zone...
I went here first. I've been before but could never get past their lack of name brands... Well this time I decided to give it a fair chance. We kind of needed to get stocked up on everything - dry snacks, freezer and pantry products, meats and cheese, produce, etc. - and while checking out I was scanning the loaded basket and thinking Yeah - this is probably gonna be like $150 (and I have gotten really good at doing this)... So imagine my shock with the cashier announced it was $80! I mean really, that was A LOT of stuff. And yes - all the brands (a lot of them 'Natural') we've tried so far taste just as good if not better than the big names.
Now I did have to swing by Kroger afterwards to "fill in the gaps" with what I couldn't find at Aldi, and that's when I did another first... COUPONS! Haha - I so felt 78 years old, but having an over-stocked kitchen and so much extra leftover in my budget account is pretty much worth it. This week was kind of just a test run to see how frugal I could be if I had to, but I may be hitting up Aldi and the Sunday paper every week! Dave would be proud :)
And just some food for thought...
This chart from our workbook shows Ben who invests $2000/yr from age 19-26, and Arthur who invests $2000/yr from age 27-65 - both at 12%. Look at the end result... Crazy, huh???
PS - I fully admit I'm not a "money-minded" person. James is that person in our marriage and I'm happy for it. So it helps that Dave not only has a great sense of humor, but is also a Godly man. Makes something that sounds like it may be grueling, actually enjoyable!
6 comments:
We went through Financial Peace University a little over a year ago and it has done AMAZING things for our finances. Stick with it - it will be SO worth it! We are still on the envelope system, have built up our emergency fund and have paid several things off. Best of luck!! You're kids are the cutest and I love all your crafty projects. Take care...Riley
A great way that we have found to save is to cancel our cable and just use Netflix. We get all of the Nick Jr shows that our daughter loves and it's only $12 a month. :)
we havent done this program but we pretty much have odne the same thing about a year ago... at first I thought it was kind of annoying especially grocery shopping but after when I relized how much extra money we had I have really gotten in to it
we are setting up our roth ira this week and I got pretty exited even though I dont know exactly what that is but we are also setting up college/ wedding fund for avery lol
oh thank you thank you thank you for sharing this... I have been wanting to do this but hubs isnt totally on board and doesnt see the need.... so anyways- I will keep up with it through you lol ;)
We read the Total Money Makeover by Dave and we love it! Glad you are liking Financial Peace University so far! And, I felt the exact same way you did about Aldi and then my MIL, a coupon and grocery expert in my opinion, showed my three different products from Aldi and the same products in brand name and they were made by the same company, just different packaging and names! I thought it was pretty funny! Enjoy.
I gave myself a craft budget this year too! So far, I'm doing pretty good sticking to it. But, thank goodness it's a new month because I have to run to Michael's tonight!! Now I also tried the once a week Starbucks. That one has been a bit more difficult. Some weeks are better than others!!!
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